Air voids in an asphalt concrete pavement highly influence its performance. Careful consideration of void requirements in compacted bituminous mixtures is more important than stability consideration, since the latter is always higher than necessary. Lack of attention to void requirements may be a direct cause of instability of asphalt concrete pavements. The present work studied the influence of aggregate type and its gradation on the voids in mineral aggregate and air voids of asphalt concrete paving mixtures as compacted according to the Marshall method. Three types of aggregates and five different gradations were employed. Aggregate gradation may be used to control the void requirements in a specific asphalt concrete mixture, influencing and/or affecting other important engineering properties such as water permeability of that specific mixture. On the other hand, aggregate type can provide the necessary voids requirements for an aggregate-asphalt mixture without sacrificing other important engineering ...

This paper presents the effect of compaction methods on soil swell pressure, unconfined compressive strength, and swell potential of three types of soils in Jordan. Undisturbed and disturbed soil samples were collected from the field and used for this study. Compacted soil specimens were prepared using dynamic compaction, static compaction, and kneading compaction. Swell potential test, swelling pressure test, and unconfined compression test were conducted on identical samples compacted by different methods, and having similar initial conditions to the undisturbed samples. Other sets of experiments were also conducted to examine the influence of initial water content on swell pressure and unconfined compressive strength under different compaction techniques. Results indicated that the undisturbed samples have the highest swelling pressure and swell potential values followed by dynamic compaction, while kneading compaction gave the lowest values for the three soils. For the same soil, it has been found that the swelling pressures of the undisturbed samples were 1.5, 1.96, and 3.07 times of that for the dynamic, static, and kneading compaction, respectively. Similar trends were obtained with regard to unconfined compressive strength and swell potential. The unconfined compressive strengths of the undisturbed samples were 1.35, 1.6, and 2.53 times higher than that of the soil specimen compacted according to the dynamic, static, and kneading procedures, respectively.

This study aims to develop the microanalysis of the bituminous mixtures using cellular phone images (CPI) and image processing techniques (IPT). A new methodology and scheme was developed for faster and accurate procedure to compute volumetric design parameters; voids in mineral aggregate (VMA), voids in total mix (VTM), and voids filled with asphalt (VFA) using CPI and IPT instead of the conventional methods. Five types of cellular phones with different camera resolutions were used to analyze the horizontal cross section (face) of hot mix asphalt slices. A cellular phone digital mapping frame for microstructure of the bituminous mixture for data collection was designed and implemented. New models for computations of volumetric design perimeters (VMA, VTM, and VFA) were developed. Results showed that the best cellular phone for microanalysis of the bituminous mixture is type D, even though it does not have the highest resolution, and the best height of capturing the images is 35 cm.

This paper combines field data with an analytical approach to spatially map noise levels due to traffic movements at relatively high traffic volume signalized intersections utilizing the potential of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Noise data were collected using a discrete mapping technique at 29 signalized intersections, as well as between intersections, and at their respective neighborhood areas in Amman, capital of Jordan. Data were collected in three different highly congested traffic peak periods: 7:30 a.m.-9:00 a.m., 1:30 p.m.-3:00 p.m., and 9:00 p.m.-11:00 p.m. A portable precision sound level meter capable of measuring noise levels from 34 to 134 decibels (dB) was used during the data collection process. The highest recorded noise level at some signals was 80 dB, while the lowest was 34 dB. In fact, some signalized intersections showed higher noise levels than the acceptable or the standard ones, i.e., 65 dB for daytime and 55 dB for nighttime in residential areas at city center. Two-dimensional (2D) vector and raster maps of noise levels, at different time periods for signals' areas and neighborhoods, were spatially displayed. Results showed that the developed GIS maps could be useful for city planning and other environmental management applications for the purpose of: 1) temporal monitoring and queries of noise level changes as a function of time, 2) spatial queries to find the highest noise disturbance location and its time of the day, 3) development of an online noise information system, 4) using noise level based spatial maps as indicators of variation in land prices, and 5) forecasting and current assessment of the acoustic climate of urban areas.